Woman held captive, repeatedly sexually assaulted with weapon: Cops

A 43-year-old man has been accused of abducting a prostitute at gunpoint and keeping her captive in his Leslieville home for five days.

The woman was used as a sex slave before she escaped over the Easter weekend, according to Toronto Police.

The brutal ordeal began March 31 when a man approached the 27-year-old sex trade worker near Sherbourne and Shuter Sts. After “a business transaction” was negotiated, the woman agreed to go to a home with the man, police alleged.

“When they arrived, the victim felt uncomfortable with him and wanted to leave,” said Insp. Joanna Beaven-Desjardins, who alleged her captor “produced a handgun, threatened the victim and held her against her will.”

Beaven-Desjardins, of the sex crimes unit, said the woman was “bound with duct tape and handcuffs” for five days and “repeatedly sexually assaulted” and subjected to “some form of ritualistic actions.”

While Beaven-Desjardins was unwilling to elaborate on what the woman was forced to endure, she added “he did do things that we are very unfamiliar with.”

She said the woman escaped from her abductor on Sunday, fleeing through the front door an on to the porch.

“That’s when somebody who was walking by heard her screams and called us,” Beaven-Desjardins said.

Officers were dispatched to the home, but by the time they arrived, the kidnapper was gone.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment and has since been released. She is now recovering from her ordeal.

Investigators arrested a suspect on Monday.

A woman who refused to identify herself at the Leslie St. home wouldn’t say if she was at in the roominghouse while the alleged kidnapping occurred. She also declined to make any comment about the accused man as she sat on the front porch of the home, across from Leslieville Public School.

“I don’t think you should assume everything you were told is fact,” the woman said, asking reporters to leave her alone.

Neighbours recounted the scene early Sunday as officers swooped in after a woman, whom several said was only partially clothed and bound by duct tape, emerged from the home screaming.

Cherie Stinson said she woke Sunday morning to shouts from the street. When she looked out the window a short time later, six police cars and an ambulance had descended on the street.

Officers came door-to-door and the K-9 unit was used to help in the search.

“I heard someone in hysterics,” she recalled. “Then I heard the dogs barking. It’s so crazy.”

A neighbour who identified herself as Alice, said the incident was “terrifying.” She had seen the accused man around the neighbourhood and described him as a loner.

“He never said spoke to me,” she said. “He would just mumble to himself.”

Rejean Hermel Perron, 43, of Toronto, is charged with sexual assault with a weapon, kidnapping, forcible confinement and assault.

The accused, who is known to police, is originally from Timmins but has also spent time in Chatham and London, Beaven-Desjardins said, adding Perron has lived in Toronto for the last 10 years.